Mikhail Torrance

Bobcats Sign Sherron Collins, Others To Summer League Roster

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Sherron Collins

After passing on the 2010 NBA Draft last week, the Bobcats have signed several undrafted rookie free agents to their summer league roster.  Ridiculous Upside is all over the topic; check them out to find out the destinations of all the other “worth a look in summer league, but not worth drafting” type of guys.

The biggest name attached to the Bobcats so far is former Kansas point guard Sherron Collins.  Despite a storied career at Kansas, Collins went undrafted mostly due to his size.  He’s a bit short for the NBA at 5’10-11″, and struggled with his weight and conditioning throughout his college career, sometimes pushing 220+.  Collins left a bad last impression when he played poorly as Kansas was knocked out in the second round of the 2010 NCAA tournament.

He then showed up at the NBA draft combine this spring weighing 217 pounds (not good when you’re supposed to be in the best shape of your life) and further compounded the problem when he weighed 229 pounds at a group workout in New Jersey a few weeks later.  The excuse of a nagging groin injury didn’t ease scouts’ concerns, and Collins’ draft potential was effectively torpedoed.

Nonetheless, he’s strong, surprisingly quick, and (2010 NCAA tournament aside) knows how to win.  KansasCity.com reports that Collins has signed a free-agent contract with the Bobcats, which gets him a spot on the summer league team and not much else.  Here’s hoping that Collins gets in shape and impresses.  Larry Brown always has room for another point guard (especially with Felton likely leaving via free agency).   Plus, if Collins makes the team, then we can recycle our old Sean May fat jokes!

The Bobcats have also reportedly gotten commitments from several other undrafted rookie free agents:

Another guy to keep an eye on is Mikhail Torrance, a 6’5″ PG from Alabama who impressed at the Portsmouth Invitational Camp this spring.  The words “6’5″ senior point guard” alone probably make Larry Brown start drooling.  Bonnell floated his name over a month ago; because of that and the fact that Torrance was widely expected to be a solid second round pick, I figured he was the target the Bobcats were aiming for when talking about buying a second rounder.

However, some sort of cardiac issue scared off GMs in the second round, and Torrance went undrafted.  He is now supposedly mulling multiple summer league offers, hopefully in addition to getting that ticker checked out.  Only the Miami Heat are mentioned, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that the Bobcats are one of the other teams interested.

After not fielding a summer league team last year in a sad attempt to save some of Bob Johnson’s cash, the Bobcats will again be a part of the Orlando Summer League this summer.  The Cats had previously confirmed that Alexis Ajinca, Gerald Henderson and Derrick Brown will be a part of the summer league squad.  Games start on July 5th — just a week away — so be on the lookout for more news this week about a few more additions to round out the roster.

-Dr. E

Bobcats Sit Out 2010 NBA Draft

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Despite some noise in recent days that seemed to point towards the Bobcats obtaining a second round pick (or even a first), the 2010 NBA Draft came and went Thursday evening with nary a mention of the Cats.

I wouldn’t doubt that the Trailblazers/Warriors trade from Monday, in which the Trailblazers reportedly paid $2 million just to move up 10 spaces in the second round from the 44th pick to the 34th, put a wet blanket on the Cats’ ideas.  That deal probably set the bar too high for Jordan to buy into the second round.

Besides, with so many teams using their extra second round picks on long-term, crapshoot foreign prospects (Paulao Prestes, Pape Sy, anyone?) it’s reasonable to assume that a few decent future NBA players actually went undrafted and can now be had for a song.

Jonathon Givony of DraftExpress called it the “most random second round ever” and notes numerous interesting undrafted players.  Need a swing?  Manny Harris and Sylven Landesburg are out there.  A Dukie?  Neither Jon Scheyer or Brian Zoubek were picked.

Want a big backup point guard (and you know Larry Brown does)?  Ben Uzoh and Mikhail Torrance are both available, though Torrance supposedly has a heart issue that scared off teams in the second round.

If I were the Cats, I’d be on the horn with Scheyer’s agent right now.  With some time, I think he can run the point in the pros, and the jumper’s not going anywhere.

A few other thoughts:

  • The General McChrystal story was a good get for Rolling Stone earlier this week, but what I’m really hoping is that a reporter was embedded in the Trailblazers front office this week to give us the grisly details of their unraveling.  Firing GM Kevin Pritchard an hour before the draft?  What a crazy story.  Pritchard has been a darling of basketball nerds/insiders/Blazers fans for the makeover he’s engineered in Portland over the past few years, but has also revealed himself to be quite the egotistical frontrunner.  Here’s Blazersedge with some more thoughts on the situation.
  • I can’t decide what is more interesting: that the Heat only have two players under contract for next year (Chalmers and Beasley) and could potentially get 2-3 superstar free agents, OR that Riley apparently can’t give Beasley away to free up another chunk of cap space.  I still think that, once Miami does its big spending in free agency, they might look at Raymond Felton to fill a need at point guard.
  • With the aforementioned superstar free agency period around the corner, Mike Miller is (understandably) being overlooked.  But if you could get him for a reasonable price, he’d be a nice piece on a good team.  The Bobcats could use a shooter like Miller — too bad there’s no feasible way for us to get our hands on him.

-Dr. E